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Case study

Cutting the demand peak at an industrial site

An industrial site fed by the public grid and a backup generator, where the energy bill arrived with no explanation of what drove it up.

The demo runs on its own: the cursor opens a board, reads its data and defers a load. You can also click any source, board or the air network.

COA Energia Viana industrial site · Tuesday · peak tariff from 18:00 Online --:-- Energy · M. Cazola
Current power—
Energy today—
Cost today—
Power factor—
Active alerts—
— kW Peak · Contracted 850 kW Today's profile · kWh per hour 00h 03h 06h 09h 12h 15h 18h 21h Public grid GRID— kW! Solar array PV— kW! Generator set GEN— kW! Main switchboard QG— kWContracted850 kWcos φ—U—THD—! Compressor room QP-01— kW!Production line 1 QP-02— kW!Production line 2 QP-03— kW!Industrial cooling QP-04— kW!Boiler and heat QP-05— kW!Lighting and offices QP-06— kW!Pumping station QP-07— kW! Compressed-air network AIR— kW!
Daily log

    A representative scenario, built from the problems we see most often in this kind of site. Exact figures vary from one installation to another.

    Starting point

    The site has seven sub-panels, a compressor room and an emergency generator. Energy was read off the main meter, once a month.

    Main problem

    Without metering per panel, there was no way to know which load was pushing power close to the contracted limit, or to act before the overshoot triggered a penalty on the next bill.

    Solution put in place

    Analysers on every panel feed COA Energia, which shows the energy flow in real time and warns when power nears the contracted limit, with the option to defer non-priority loads right from the screen.

    Key results

    In the first billing cycle after installation:

    -22%

    billed power peak

    -14%

    average monthly energy cost

    9 months

    payback on the investment

    Day to day

    What the team sees on screen

    COA-IoT
    COA Energia — Fluxo em tempo real Últimas 6 horas
    Potência atual
    612 kW
    88% do limite
    Ponta reduzida
    -22%
    vs. mês anterior
    Fator de potência
    0.94
    +0.03
    Potência por quadro (kW)
    Quadro 3 Quadro 5
    Quadros parciais
    Quadro 3 — Compressores 92% do limite contratado Próximo do limite
    Quadro 5 — Climatização Carga adiável disponível Normal
    Gerador de emergência Em reserva Standby

    COA Energia — Fluxo em tempo realEnergy flow between the grid, the generator and the sub-panels, with the day's peak highlighted.

    COA-IoT
    Quadro 3 — Ficha Últimas 6 horas
    Potência
    184 kW
    +12 kW
    Corrente
    268 A
    +18 A
    Potência (kW)
    92% % do limite contratado
    0.94 Fator de potência

    Quadro 3 — FichaA sub-panel's record: power, power factor and a load-deferral action.

    Does this sound familiar?

    Tell us about your site. We survey it in person and tell you, before proposing anything, what is worth measuring and at what cost.